can't install IE11 (and IE10) on Win 7 Home Premium

first off, apologies if this has been covered, I did a search and didn't find a pertinent (to me) thread.

I have not received the invitation to Windows 10, and read somewhere that it was necessary to have IE11 installed, had been running IE10. I tried to do that yesterday, and initially got the '9C59' error message, meaning that there was a problem with IE9. I used the trouble-shooting link provided (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2872074), and got nowhere, even after ensuring that all prerequisite updates were installed (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...site%20updates), and went thru numerous restarts.

Ultimately, I uninstalled IE10, and tried installing IE11 again (using the stand-alone installer). That also failed. I tried to reinstall IE10, without any luck. The next step suggested seems to be performing a clean boot (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/929135) -- before I do that, does anyone have any other suggestions? Before all this started, I specifically created a restore point, so presumably I could go that route, too.

The laptop is a Sony Vaio, running Win7HomePremium SP1, 4Gb RAM, using the MS anti-virus and firewall.

I have found sometimes that, in order to fully uninstall a version of IE, you need to uninstall it (or at least verify that it is not installed) in three places:
* Programs
* Windows Updates
* Windows Features

I don't have the exact wording of these options, because I am at work, and "Programs and Features" is not available on my work computer.

If you'll go to all three places and make sure that IE is not installed there, I think you'll find success. But the one caveat is that you don't want to totally get rid of IE, because then you might not be able to get back on the web to install IE 11! Therefore, I'd download Chrome, Firefox, or some other browser before you start, so that you can have a browser handy to install, just in case.